Historic Markers Across Georgia

The Stoneman Raid Battle of King's Tanyard

Coming in on Atlanta in July, 1864, Maj. Gen. W.T. Sherman found it "too strong to assault and too extensive to invest." To force its evacuation, he sent Maj. Gen. Geo. Stoneman´s cavalry to cut the Macon railway by which its defenders were supplied. At the Battle of Sunshine Church (19 miles NE of Macon), Stoneman surrender with 600 men to Brig. Gen. Alfred Iverson, Jr., after covering the escape northward of Adams´ and Capron´s brigades. Both units retreated via Athens, intending to resupply their commands there and to "destroy the armory and other government works," but were stopped at the river bridge south of Athens by Home Guard units with a battery of guns. Unable to cross, they turned west; Capron on the Hog Mountain road through Jug Tavern (Winder), and Adams on roads farther north by which he reached the Union lines near Marietta without further losses.